Driving back from Beacon last night, where I’d spent the afternoon packing boxes. It was about 65°. I had the windows open, and I turned on the car radio for the first time in over a month. Sailing down 9, surrounded by the usual traffic, summer on the horizon…for a second, everything felt almost normal.
Until 21 Pilots came on with Level of Concern.
Panic on the brain, world has gone insane
Things are starting to get heavy, mmm
I can’t help but think I haven’t felt this way
Since I asked you to go steady
Wonderin’, would you be my little quarantine?
Or is this the way it ends?
God damn. When was the last time a disaster or world event made its way into a pop song? I don’t listen to pop, so that’s not entirely a rhetorical question—and I recall that 9/11 inspired a few predictably jingoistic country hits back in the day—but I can’t remember the last time I heard modern mainstream rock/pop address anything contemporary.
But I do remember how many pop songs from the 1980s addressed the theme of nuclear war. It was one of those pervasive sword-of-Damocles threats that you couldn’t not think about. Uncertainty is one of the most consuming mindsets there is, especially concerning matters you really have little control over. Something on that scale, looming ever-present in the public consciousness…sure, makes sense that eventually, someone’s going to sing about it on the radio.
So—we’re here now, I guess. COVID rock. For the doubters: Nobody ever did a song about the common flu, now did they?
You could bring down my level of concern
Just need you to tell me we’re alright
Tell me we’re okay, yeah
Tell me we’re alright
Tell me we’re okay, yeah
Tell me we’re alright…